Stir Up Sunday
by sbmcneil
Summary: Harry and Ginny both celebrate Stir Up Sunday over the years and learn that those wishes made making Christmas pudding do indeed come true.


**A/N:** This story came about in response to my story Christmas Biscuits. It was pointed out to me that making Christmas biscuits or Christmas cookies was not a British tradition, so in this story I am exploring a very British tradition of making Christmas pudding. For my American readers, Stir Up Sunday is traditionally the last Sunday before Advent (or five weeks before Christmas) when the Christmas pudding is made. I hope everyone enjoys this fun story.  
Thank you to my beta, StephanieO and a very special thanks to Mark and Laura for their Brit picking.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.

* * *

Molly smiled as she watched her daughter carefully stirring the flour and spices for the Christmas pudding. She'd moved the preparation to the kitchen table so Ginny could kneel on a chair and easily reach the bowl.

"Mummy, what about Billy and Charlie? They won't be able to mix the pudding," Ginny said looking quite concerned over that fact. "Freddie said that they wouldn't get to make a wish and that would be bad."

"Don't worry, sweetheart and don't listen to what the twins tell you," Molly replied gently as she stroked her daughter's hair. "Bill and Charlie are having a wonderful time at Hogwarts and they will get to make a wish when they get their piece of pudding on Christmas, that's what they did last year, remember?"

Ginny nodded a bit doubtfully. Christmas was a long time ago and she wasn't entirely certain she remembered everything that happened the year before.

"Why don't you get the suet from the cold cupboard," Molly said. She gave the ingredients a good stir while Ginny was otherwise occupied. Ginny did a good job, but she was only four so she still needed help.

Ginny carried the jar of suet to the table. Molly scooped the required amount into the bowl and then directed Ginny to pour the already measured sugar into the bowl. Molly deftly mixed the next several ingredients into the bowl.

"Take the towel off of the fruit," Molly directed. Ginny carefully removed the towel, she dipped one end in the liquid, but Molly quickly cleaned it up for her. Ginny wrinkled her nose at the smell of the alcohol that the fruits and candied peels were marinating in. Molly laughed. "Don't worry, lovey, remember how nice the pudding smells?"

Ginny nodded with a big smile. That she did remember. She loved the smell of the house in December. Mummy baked all sorts of cakes, puddings, and pies to give to relatives and friends. A few weeks before Christmas, Daddy would get the Christmas tree and the wonderful smell of the tree filled the house. This time of year, Mummy brought out the special candles that smelled really nice. The Burrow in December was a wonderful place to be.

"Okay, I'm going to get the tokens out of the water," Molly said. "Please be careful and don't touch anything."

From the large cauldron of simmering water, Molly pulled the tokens for the pudding from the water and with a wave of her wand the tokens were dried. With another wave of the wand she put ribbons on the tokens so no one would choke on them. She levitated them over to the towel that was sitting on the table next to the large mixing bowl.

"Ready?"

Ginny nodded eagerly.

"Go get your daddy from his shed," Molly said. "I'll get your brothers down here."

Ginny slipping off her chair and hurried out across the garden to her daddy's shed. She thought her daddy's shed was one of the most interesting places in the world. He had all sorts of Muggle things in there. She didn't know what they did, but they had interesting names and daddy had lots of fun taking them apart. Ginny got to help with that part sometimes.

"Daddy," Ginny called out as she near the shed. "It's stir up time."

Arthur stuck his head out of the door of his shed. "Stir up time? I wouldn't want to miss that."

Leaving his shed, he lifted his daughter into his arms and hugged her tightly, kissing her on the cheek. He settled her onto his hip and started for the house. "Have you been helping Mummy?"

Ginny nodded her head before laying it down on her daddy's shoulder. He smiled at her. "Excellent, I know Mummy really likes when you help her in the kitchen."

The little girl smiled proudly, she liked helping mummy in the kitchen. She didn't understand why her brothers didn't like it. The kitchen was always nice and warm and it always smelled really nice.

Arthur put her down as before they reached the kitchen. He knew if he carried her in, the twins wouldn't miss out on the chance to make fun of her being the baby of the family. He didn't want Stir Up Sunday to devolve into another fight. The twins were good boys, but they were extremely mischievous and they tended to tease the younger children.

When father and daughter entered the kitchen, Molly had the four boys well in hand washing up at the sink. Ginny hurried over to the sink and washed her hands as well. Once everyone had clean hands, they lined up at the table.

Arthur stirred the mixture and closed his eyes, making his wish before handing the spoon to Molly. They went in age order until it was Ginny's turn. She stirred the mixture and closed her eyes to make her wish. She couldn't think of a good wish at first, she had everything she needed and she'd already asked Santa for a teddy bear. The story daddy had read the night before flashed through her mind. It was the story of Harry Potter. With a smile on her face, she wished with all of her heart that Harry Potter was loved and happy this Christmas. Opening her eyes, she looked up at her mum.

"Is it time to put in the tokens?"

"Yes, it is."

"Percy, you get to pick first. What token do you want to add?"

Percy looked over the collection of tokens and chose the spellbook. "This is supposed to bring wisdom."

"You'll need that," Fred snickered.

"Be nice, boys," Molly said firmly.

After Percy dropped his token in, Fred chose the cauldron the represented a happy home while George chose to drop in one of the Knuts for prosperity. Ron looked over all of the tokens trying to decide what to pick. In the end he picked a wand that represented magical strength. Ginny was secretly glad that's what he picked, she gleefully lifted the broom that represented travel and dropped it into the bowl. Molly and Arthur dropped in the other Knut and two Sickles that were left on the towel.

"Thank you, boys," Molly smiled at them.

"You are welcome, Mother," Percy replied properly. "I'm going to finish reading."

Fred and George simply nodded and raced up the stairs. Molly shook her head. When the twins didn't want to stick around that was a sure sign that there would be all sorts of bangs and noises from their room later that night.

"Thanks, Mummy," Ron said before heading upstairs after his older brothers.

Molly watched him go with a smile. She worried about little Ron. Coming right after the twins, he was a natural target for many of their pranks. Sometimes he would play with Ginny and they got along well until one of the twins teased him about playing with a girl. That would invariably lead to Ron being mean to Ginny and feelings would be hurt all the way around. She wished the twins wouldn't bait him so much and that he wouldn't react so violently. She hoped they would grow out of it as they grew older.

Ron and Charlie got along well and during the summer and school holidays, Ron was Charlie's little shadow. She was very grateful that Charlie was so tolerant of his tag along little brother. Bill and Charlie had always been best friends, but they had each taken one of their youngest siblings under their wing. While Ron had Charlie, Ginny had Bill. The oldest and youngest had a very special bond. Molly was quite happy with the way her large brood was turning out.

* * *

While Molly was preparing to put the pudding over the boiling cauldron to steam, another family was preparing their Christmas pudding in their extremely clean and very normal house in Surrey.

Petunia smiled as Dudley came rumbling into the kitchen. He was such a handsome boy. She didn't understand how the paediatrician could possibly say that Dudley was overweight. He was honestly perfect in her eyes. Such a handsome little boy and he was very smart and quite sweet as well.

A slight movement caught her eye and she frowned. It was him. He was the exact opposite of her little Dudders. He was small and sneaky and he didn't work very hard, she always had to correct him and punish him. He was the only stain on her perfect world. "Boy, go to your cupboard. This is family time and you aren't family."

The small, dark haired boy frowned and scurried off to his cupboard. He hated living with his aunt and uncle and wished with all of his heart he didn't have to live here. He scooted to the back of his cupboard so he was lying on the thin mattress his uncle had placed in there for him to sleep on.

Through the walls he could hear his aunt and cousin making the Christmas pudding. He laughed quietly as he imagined Dudley eating everything before his aunt could put in the mixing bowl. If he tried that, he would have his hand smacked and get sent to his cupboard for a long time, but if Dudley did it, she would just give him a hug and kiss. He really wished he knew what he'd done to make her so mad, because he would fix it if he could.

"Stir the pudding, Dudley."

"When do I get to make my wish?" Dudley demanded.

"After we finish mixing everything," Petunia replied.

"Why can't he do it?"

Harry imagined his aunt scowling as she always seemed to do when talking about him. "Isn't it much nicer without him here?"

Harry didn't hear anything so he thought maybe his cousin nodded or something. Heavy footsteps sounded and shook Harry's little cupboard under the stairs.

"Are you making Christmas pudding?" Vernon asked jovially as he entered the kitchen. "Everything smells wonderful, Petunia."

"Thank you," Petunia replied. "You are just in time to stir the pudding."

Harry listened as his aunt, uncle, and cousin stirred the pudding and made a wish. He only knew what was happening because Aunt Petunia had explained it to Dudley earlier that day. After Dudley took his turn, Harry pretended he was stirring the bowl and closing his eyes, he made a wish. He wished that he could have a Christmas with a family that loved him.

Opening his eyes, he listened to what was happening in the kitchen. Uncle Vernon asked, "Are you putting tokens in this year?"

"No," Petunia replied. Harry could hear the annoyance in her voice. "They make them so small and they are so poorly made these days. I don't want my little Duddikins to choke on some poorly made token."

Like last year, was the unspoken end of her sentence. Harry remembered well last Christmas. Dudley had stuffed his mouth full of as much pudding as possible and he'd swallowed a button. Aunt Petunia had to rush to him to the hospital and on Boxing Day, the doctors had to take the button out.

Dudley seemed fine when he came home, but for some reason Harry had been punished for the incident. He couldn't figure out why, he wasn't allowed to eat Christmas dinner with the family so he was sitting in his cupboard eating his rather large dinner of a piece of goose, a small spoonful of potatoes, and Brussels sprouts when it happened. Harry wasn't entirely clear on how he caused Dudley to choke, but both Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon said it was his fault. So it must have been.

Harry sighed. If Dudley didn't inhale his food so quickly, maybe he wouldn't have to worry about choking.

"Quite right," Uncle Vernon said. Harry heard a noise that he thought was Vernon pounding Dudley on the back. He frowned. Why would Uncle Vernon never pound Harry on the back or even just be nice to him? He never understood why his aunt and uncle didn't like him.

As Aunt Petunia put the pudding on to steam, Harry settled back in his cupboard, a single tear making its way down his face. He really hoped his wish would come true and someday he would have Christmas with a family that loved him.

* * *

Harry smiled as he stepped into his old family home. It had taken the wizarding architects six months to repair and restore the old house to its former glory. They had expanded the house in the back adding on so the house now wrapped around his mother's garden. The old nursery was now a hall that led the way to the new master suite. He didn't want anyone to sleep in the room, even after all of the curse damage had been fixed. He and Ginny had just moved into the house in preparation for their coming wedding.

As he took off his coat and outwear, he could hear the sound of laughter coming from the kitchen. It was Stir Up Sunday and he was going to celebrate it properly for the first time ever.

He entered the large modern kitchen to find Ginny mixing the ingredients while Hermione tried to keep Ron from snatching too many of the marinated fruits.

"Ron, enough," Hermione said in a way that made Harry think it was not the first time she'd said it. "If you eat them all Ginny won't have enough to make the pudding."

"That won't happen," Ron defended himself. "Besides, they smell really good."

"They smell like brandy," Ginny said as she smacked his hand with a wooden spoon. "Keep your dirty hands out of my ingredients."

Seamus, who was sitting at the large kitchen table with George and Demelza, laughed at his former roommate. "Weasley, you're lucky. My mum would put some kind of hex on her pudding ingredients so you'd get a shock if you tried to pilfer any food."

"Harry!" George cried when he spied Harry. "Love the house, mate." He gestured to the large picture windows that overlooked the garden. While the garden was bare at the moment, in the centre was a fountain that was bubbling away.

"Thanks," Harry said as he walked up behind Ginny and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She turned and kissed him in greeting. "Hello, love. I was getting worried, you're late."

"Sorry," Harry replied as he squeezed her. "I stopped at the shop in town and people wanted to talk to me." He shook his head. "I don't understand why people are so interested in me or in us."

"You're getting a lot better at talking to strangers," Hermione observed.

Harry laughed. "That's because Kingsley has been drilling it into my head how important it is to be polite to the general public. That man is amazing."

"Aye, he is," Seamus agreed. "He can talk to a group that wanted to lynch him and within a few minutes he'll have them laughing and agreeing with him."

"Love, did you get the tokens?" Ginny asked as she dumped the marinated fruit into the batter.

"Yes," Harry replied as he reached into this pocket and pulled out a paper wrapped package.

Ginny opened the package and poured the tokens into the water to clean them before they went into the pudding.

"This is really nice," Hermione said. "We never made Christmas pudding. My parents thought it was too much work."

"So what did you have for Christmas dinner?" Ginny asked curiously.

"We usually went out to eat," Hermione replied. "Often we went away on holiday, but even when we stayed at home we would always go out to eat on Christmas. My mum isn't much for cooking and she'd rather enjoy the day with me and my dad rather than spend the day in the kitchen." She laughed. "I think it's safe to say our mums are pretty much opposites."

"That's for sure," Ginny said. "I always loved the Burrow in December. I swear my mum spends the whole month baking and the house always smells of spices and baking. She always brings out the scented candles so that just adds to the wonderful aroma."

"My granny lives with us so she and my mum baked the whole month," Demelza said with a smile on her a face. "My older sisters always complained that they gained weight just by walking into my mum's house in December."

"You didn't worry about that?" Ginny asked with a hint of laughter in her voice. That was certainly never a concern in her mother's house, not with her brothers at least.

"No, I've always been more athletic than my sisters," Demelza said.

"How do you like the Harpies?" Harry asked as he leaned back against the table.

"I love it," Demelza said with a smile at Ginny. "Even though we are on the reserve squad, we're getting a lot of good experience. I think Ginny will be promoted to the starting team soon, but I'm just happy to be playing professional Quidditch. I love being on the team and doing all of the publicity and the events."

Ginny nodded. "We're going to visit a children's unit in the hospital next to the Cardiff and Vale hospital. It's a wizarding hospital that services all of Wales. It's great fun. We meet the kids and pose for pictures and sign autographs. The kids are so sweet, we went for Halloween."

"I didn't realize you did things like that," Hermione said in astonishment.

"I think the Harpies do more charity work than some of the other teams, but it's really important to management that we give back to the community and really provide good role models for children, especially girls," Ginny explained. "We've had classes on etiquette and how to dress properly for different occasions."

"It's so different from what I thought it would be," Demelza said. "We have dance classes, yoga classes, as well as our strategy meetings and flying drills."

"I love it," Ginny said happily. "It really is the best job in the world."

Looking at the clock she said, "I'm going to pull the tokens out now."

With a few waves of her wand, the tokens were dried and tied with ribbons ready to be dropped into the pudding. Hermione looked over them.

"These aren't the ones I'm familiar with," she said with a slight frown.

"They are wizarding tokens," Harry offered by way of explanation.

Ron ambled over to look at the array of tokens. "The cauldron is for a happy home, the wand is for magical strength, the broom is for travel, the spellbooks are for wisdom – that sounds like the one you would like, Hermione. The coins are for prosperity."

"Me mam always has a ring for marriage, a thimble for another year of spinsterhood, and a button for another year of bachelorhood," Seamus offered. "I think those might be Muggle tokens. Our pudding had thirteen ingredients – one for Christ and twelve for his apostles." At Hermione's look of surprise, he said, "My parents are both very religious."

"I didn't realize that," Hermione said with a surprised tone. "I guess I just assumed that witches and wizards weren't religious. I assumed that the so-called miracles were magic tricks or something of that sort."

Seamus shook his head. "That's not what my mum taught me. She's a very strict Catholic and goes to church every Sunday. I'm not so good at going to church myself, but I'm not willing to say that my mum is wrong."

"Mum used to read us bible stories," George spoke up. "I don't know much about church, but I always liked the stories."

"Okay, it's time to stir up," Ginny announced ignoring the side conversation. "Mum always has us line up oldest to youngest, so George – you're first."

George stirred the pudding and closing his eyes, made his wish before passing the spoon to Hermione. They finished in age order – Seamus, Ron, Harry, Demelza, and Ginny. George thought about choosing the cauldron token as it had always been Fred's favourite, but in the end he went with one of the Knuts which was his favourite. Hermione decided to go with the spellbooks as Ron suggested. Seamus chose the wand, Ron picked the Sickle, and Harry chose the cauldron. Demelza and Ginny bargained over the broom with Ginny getting the broom while Demelza got the Knut.

After all the tokens were in the pudding, Ginny put it over the large cauldron to steam. She smiled at all of her family and friends. "Thank you so much for celebrating Stir Up Sunday with us."

Later that evening once all of their guests had left, Harry watched Ginny take the pudding off the cauldron and wrap it up tightly. He smiled as he watched her work. "Do you realize that when we eat that, we will be married?"

Ginny flashed him a grin. "I know - I can't wait! Just under four weeks and we will be married."

Once the pudding was wrapped and placed in the larder, Ginny wrapped her arms around him. "I am so glad that we are finally here in our own house getting ready to celebrate both Christmas and our wedding."

Leaning down, Harry kissed her. "Me too. When I was a little boy I used to wish for a loving family to celebrate Christmas with and you've given that to me. Thank you."

She smiled up at him. "You are quite welcome. We are going to have many, many happy Christmases in our new house."


End file.
